Discovery of Palmistry and Leonie the Librarian

April 17, 2024. Woke up at 7:30 AM. Went to urinate. The urine was very, very yellow. I knew exactly why. It was the lentils and the two tablespoons of flaxseeds that I had added to my food. They had drawn a lot of water from the body to swell. That's why, in a survival situation where water and food are scarce, I should rather not eat and suffer from a water shortage due to digestion, which requires water.

Walked to the library. I love my new merino wool sweater. It’s 5 degrees outside, and I'm wearing just a t-shirt and this sweater, feeling warm. It only doesn't protect against the wind, but that’s no problem as long as the wind isn’t blowing. The sun is coming out from behind the gray clouds.

On the way, I looked at the plants. They had dew on the leaves. "So much water on them. I could use that as a water source," I thought. I also read that it brings good weather. I looked up at the sky. But the gray cloud cover moving from north to south said otherwise. Contradictory, but precisely for that reason, one should not rely on a single observation.

On my way, a girl smiled at me who could be Luisa's sister. She looked very much like her. I reached into my pocket. No more money for coffee. Maybe that’s for the best? I had withdrawn 10 euros anyway. And that was a good thing because when I bought a whole grain baguette at Lidl, I wanted to pay by card, but the self-service machines weren't working. It wasn’t possible to pay by card at the cash register either. So one cannot rely 100% on card payments. One should always have some cash on hand. I’m glad I withdrew 10 euros earlier.

At the checkout, I asked a family with a large grocery haul if they could let me go ahead. They were very nice and gladly let me go first. I thought about urban survival. How can I be so selfish in an emergency situation and not help these nice people with my survival skills? Many in the urban survival scene have this selfishness. I don’t want to think that way.

A man in front of me claimed he had received 1 euro too little in change. There was a little discussion at the cash register. The cashier gave him the euro. You could see on her face that it put her in a bad mood. When it was my turn, she signed the man's receipt with her long, pink-painted fingernails.

"Nice fingernails with practical use," I said.

"Thank you," she replied, and a broad smile spread across her face.

Then it became clear to me what long fingernails can be used for - as a pen. With this realization, I went into HanoMacke and got myself a coffee. Due to the early hour and the cold, the campus was empty outside. As soon as I stepped out of HanoMacke, the sun was already coming out from behind the clouds again. A broad grin on my face. I sat cross-legged on the bench and enjoyed the sun with my coffee.

At 11:30 AM, food and coffee break. Saw Rebekka, the gothic student, in line at the cafeteria. In HanoMacke, Maxi was behind the counter. This time, she seemed nice to me. She smiled at me. On the way back, I met Anna, the lesbian. She clearly saw me and then quickly looked away. No idea what’s going on with her.

At 2 PM, I left the library. There was a demo against the far-right on campus. It rained. I got a coffee and stood at the door of HanoMacke watching the rain and the demo.

Then I went into the bookstore. Sitting cross-legged today, I read "The Little Book of Palmistry" by Kitty Gulsborough. I don’t know if there’s anything to it or not, but the fact is that it will help me make physical contact with potential partners more quickly.

I learned that before starting with esoteric interpretations, you should look at the skin texture, muscle tone, flexibility of the hand and fingers, scars, injuries, and tattoos. Are there any unusual features? Because these observations already reveal a lot about the person. For example, delicate hands are quite unlikely for a craftsman.

My new scar on my middle finger immediately caught my attention. My middle finger is the longest. There are no calluses on it. My fingers are long. The fingernails are trimmed.

After these observations comes the esoteric part. The comparison of the proportionality of the palm to the length of the fingers. From this, one can determine whether my hand is a fire, water, air, or earth hand. Certain traits are attributed to these:

• A fire hand has a rectangular palm and short fingers. The zodiac sign could be Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius. The associated traits are extroverted, passionate, impulsive, adventurous, caring, assertive, and active.
• A water hand has a rectangular palm and long fingers. The zodiac sign could be Pisces, Cancer, or Scorpio. The associated traits are introverted, idealistic, solitary, indecisive, imaginative, and mysterious.
• An air hand has a square palm and long fingers. The zodiac sign could be Aquarius, Gemini, or Libra. The associated traits are restless, curious, intellectual, analytical, powerful, exciting, unstable, and contradictory. I have an air hand.
• An earth hand has a square palm and short fingers. The zodiac sign could be Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn. The associated traits are realistic, pragmatic, grounded, reliable, loyal, stubborn, quick, and strong.

The fingers are assigned astrological planets:

• The little finger corresponds to Mercury and stands for communication, liveliness, rationality, education.
• The ring finger corresponds to the Sun and stands for creativity, spontaneity, ego, consciousness, vitality.
• The middle finger corresponds to Saturn and stands for intelligence, reason, balance, solitude, focus, ethics.
• The index finger corresponds to Jupiter and stands for leadership, ambition, extravagance, exploration, strength, military, and politics.
• The thumb is not assigned to any planet.

At home, I received the small pillbox that I attached as a pendant to the front of my backpack. It fits exactly one large pill. Then I watched a talk show about love. There was a polyamorous community guest who lives in an open relationship. Somehow, that made me curious again. Maybe that would be something for me?

Mom asked me to come today because the old washing machine is being picked up tomorrow. So I'm heading out after the documentary, so I can be there by 8 PM. At the crosswalk to the bus stop at Vahrenwalder Platz, a blonde girl smiled at me and greeted me. We were waiting for the light to turn green.

“You work at the Conti library, right?”

“Yes, exactly, and you’re the sun worshiper on the Conti campus?”

“Exactly, with a cup of coffee in hand.”

The traffic light turned green.

“What’s your name?”

“Leonie.”

“I’m Alexander. Nice to meet you.” We shook hands. Now I knew who had been grinning at me on campus. “Maybe we can grab a coffee together when we see each other on campus.”

“Yeah, why not!” she said and walked on.

“Ciao,” I called after her, thinking, okay, this won’t go anywhere. She continued straight, and I turned toward the platform.

Since I had half an hour at the main train station, I took a little walk. On the way back, I stopped in front of a pizzeria because a pretty blonde in line caught my eye. When she bought her pizza, I approached her.

“Hey!”

“Hello!” she said, taking a bite of her salami pizza. That’s when I noticed she was half a head taller than me. I liked that.

“I was just on my way to the train when I saw you. My heart started beating a little faster. Do you mind if we...”

I noticed her mouth corners twitching down for a microsecond.

“Oh crap, are you taken?”

“Yes. Freshly taken. How did you know?”

“Your mouth corners went down for a brief moment. That’s when I knew it would be a rejection.”

She laughed.

“And what’s your name?”

“Laura, and you?”

“Alexander.”

“But hey Alexander, I'm glad you approached me. Maybe we'll see each other again.”

“Let’s see if the universe is on our side. Take care!”

“Bye, Alexander.”

She walked on. I paused for a moment and looked around. Then I headed to the platform as well. I saw that she was also going to platform 13.

“I think we’re taking the same train,” I said as I caught up with her on the escalator.

“Which one are you taking?”

“The S3 to Hildesheim.”

“I’m going to Wolfsburg.”

“Hmm, so much for the universe being on our side...” I made a sarcastic remark.

“Safe travels!” she said, grinning.

The train was already there. I got on and noted this encounter in my diary.